Day: December 21, 2011

We all knew that an announcement was coming and, somehow or other, the decision reached would have been surprising, no matter what it was – a reflection, perhaps, of the fact that this particular story should have twisted and turned in the way that it has since it first became apparent that something happened at Loftus Road during his team’s match against Queens Park Rangers, two months ago. John Terry, the captain of Chelsea Football Club and the England national football team, has been charged with “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress which was racially aggravated”, and will stand trial at West London Magistrates Court on the first of February. Alison Saunders, the Chief Crown Prosecutor for London, released the following statement earlier this afternoon: I have today advised the Metropolitan Police Service that John Terry should be prosecuted for a racially aggravated public order offence following comments allegedly made during a Premier League football match between Queen’s Park Rangers and Chelsea on 23 October 2011. The decision was taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and after careful consideration of all the evidence, I am satisfied there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and it is in the public interest to prosecute this case. Mr Terry will appear before West London...

On the details of the case itself, we will have to see the full details of the FA’s investigation before passing any comment. We can, however, say with a degree of certainty that the reaction was as hysterical as might have been predicted and that oil has been poured onto an already raging fire by an official club statement from Liverpool Football Club itself which the club may yet come to repent at leisure. There can also be no doubting that the disciplinary action taken against Luis Suarez after having been found guilty of misconduct, regarding “using insulting words towards” Patrice Evra during the match between Liverpool and Manchester United in October, was far from lenient. An eight match ban is a lengthy one, although it is worth pointing out that trying to draw equivalences between this verdict and others from the past (and especially, in the case of John Terry, whose name has been thrown around as if the allegations made against him have any bearing whatsoever either way on this case) would appear to be barking up the wrong tree. After all, if the FA are as blindly incompetent (or, as some are claiming this evening, somehow under the influence of Alex Ferguson) as many Liverpool supporters seem to think this evening, then who is to say that previous judgements that they have passed down were all correct,...